Business is War: Mendelssohn and His Italian Publishers

Mendelssohn’s reputation in nineteenth-century Italy and his influence on Italian musical culture is an intriguing topic that has received scant attention in scholarly writings on the composer. This may be because this subject is hindered by inadequate bibliographic aids ² and a scarcity of contemporary music criticism and reviews. ³ It is generally accepted that nineteenth-century Italy was devoted mostly to operatic music and its by-products (potpourris, paraphrases and arrangements). The first Italian edition of Mendelssohn’s music appeared in 1844, significantly later than in Britain and France. ⁴ This lag poses a number of questions: What was the state of Italian music publishing at that time? What were publishers interested in? What was the dissemination of Mendelssohn’s music in Italy? Just how interested was Mendelssohn in publishing his music in Italy, and how did he determine which compositions to release there? The answers can be found in the correspondence pertaining to Mendelssohn and his Italian publishers, which provides an insight into how Mendelssohn’s music was received in Italy during the composer’s lifetime. The letters also afford us a clear picture of the extent to which instrumental music, as opposed to opera and its derivatives, had a foothold in the musical lives of nineteenth-century Italians, with its popularity increasing dramatically throughout the second half of the century.